Bangladesh explains its abstention from UN vote over Ukraine war

Deep diplomatic engagement and dialogue between Russia and Ukraine are important for any meaningful and sustainable peace building.

Bangladesh has abstained from voting in a United Nations resolution as this important aspect was ignored.

Bangladesh came up with this explanation today, Sunday about abstaining from voting.

A resolution calling for a halt to the Russia-Ukraine war was adopted Thursday at the UN. It called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine in light of the UN Charter and criticized Russia for attacking Ukraine.

A total of 141 countries voted in favour of the resolution at the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly while 32 countries, including Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained from voting. Seven countries including Russia voted against it.

The Russian embassy in Dhaka thanked Bangladesh the following day for abstaining from voting.

Seheli Sabrin, spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said, “Bangladesh thinks deep diplomatic engagement and dialogue among the parties involved in the conflict is a perquisite for a meaningful and sustainable solution. In our opinion, this important and realistic point has remained missing in the resolution and this is why we abstained from voting.”

The spokesperson in the written speech said Bangladesh is increasingly concerned about the situation in Ukraine.

“Death of civilians, worsening humanitarian situation in the conflict zone and the deterioration of socio-economic condition globally as a result of the war has made us concerned,” the MoFA said.

Bangladesh urged all to stop the conflict and reiterate its pledges towards safeguarding the principles and goals of the UN charter at any cost.